Thread by @patrickdmarley

Wisconsin election investigator Vos hired has partisan past bit.ly/3wIXnGr

In 2008, then-Milwaukee Police Detective Mike Sandvick wrote a report on the 2004 election that prompted a partisan brawl.

His supporters used his findings to highlight the threat of voter fraud, while his detractors noted his report was disavowed by prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman would not allow the report to be introduced as evidence in a 2013 case over Wisconsin's voter ID law.

"It's not trustworthy," said Adelman, a former Democratic state senator.

Sandvick's report called for establishing a voter ID law and ending a policy that allows people to register to vote at the polls.

Police reports don't typically include policy recommendations and Sandvick's work led to criticism from then-Chief Edward Flynn.

"We're not the Department of Making Policy Recommendations," Flynn said then. "That's where this thing got out of control."

Sandvick used his own funds to pay for copying and binding some copies of the report and delivered them himself to the heads of the state Democratic and Republican parties. Flynn said Sandvick admitted he made a mistake but was not disciplined.

Flynn in the fall of 2008 ordered Sandvick not to go to the polls because he said he needed to preserve the department’s image as an objective agency.

Sandvick took Election Day off and challenged absentee ballots on his own time, according to court testimony. Sandvick retired soon afterward and then went to work for the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office.

In 2011, Sandvick took a position on an "election integrity" committee put together by the state Republican Party.

He briefly served as state director for True the Vote, a tea party-aligned group focused on voter fraud.